What is one of the most challenging aspects of being a Shopify store owner? If you guessed managing refunds and returns, you’re right on the money! Reverse logistics can be costly for both established and new eCommerce stores.
Hence, it is vital to have a well-planned refund policy to ensure you start things on the right track.
This is where you can also use a Shopify refund policy template. You don’t need to put in any extra effort other than simply copying and pasting the entire template on your store.
You can also customise the template to fit any additional requirements of your Shopify store. We’ll first visit the different factors that make up a good Shopify refund policy, steps on how you can create one and finally, the template itself!
Let’s first dive deep into the various essentials that make up a good Shopify refund policy. These points are crucial, especially if you’re looking to build a refund policy from scratch.
Choosing a suitable time frame to allow refunds is difficult for any eCommerce store. On average, many online stores allow their customers to process refunds of their products till 30 days from the date of purchase.
Another method online retailers use is giving full refunds only for 30 days and not any longer. This time limit works best in either case since it favours you and your customers.
An extremely short refund time limit can turn off your customers before they even buy. On the other hand, a longer time limit can enable customers to ‘rent’ your products rather than buy them.
Dealing with returns can be hard for your customers too. To ‘reward’ them for facing this trouble, you can provide extra benefits with refunds. For instance, you can give store credits valid for a specific period.
Even something as simple as a discount code can push your customers to come and buy back from you again. If you make your customers’ returns process memorable, you can ensure they don’t abandon your brand.
Over 40% of all customers visit the returns policy page before deciding to purchase. What does this indicate? It tells you that your first impression is your last.
This is true mainly for softline businesses such as fashion. Keep your conditions clear and easy for consumers to accept and avoid any stinginess for refunds.
If your policy has too many complicated conditions, your consumers won’t bother dealing with you in the first place.
How many times have you looked at a refund policy and questioned what half of it even meant? Customers can get confused due to the overwhelming language that brands can use to sound ‘professional’.
In reality, being simple and using straightforward language helps your customers be confident that they have understood your refund policy.
Having easy language in your policy will also help reduce any chance of misconceptions that your customers may have while reading.
Now that we know what a good refund policy should consist of, it’s time to see how you can create a fantastic Shopify refund policy yourself.
The first order of business is to make sure your refund policy is visible easily. We do not want to confuse customers and make them visit hundreds of other pages before accessing your policy.
You can choose to do what many modern-day eCommerce brands practice: place the policy at the bottom. This is where all the different call-to-actions, such as ‘contact us, ‘follow us, etc., come in.
Making your refund policy easy to navigate will help customers save time.
As mentioned earlier, confusing your patrons with heavy-worded conditions can have the opposite effect of pleasing them. If you have something to say, do it the easiest way possible. After all, your customers are humans, too, who prefer to undergo things straightforwardly.
Another part many Shopify store owners may miss is upsetting visitors with legal terms galore. Not every customer may necessarily know the meaning behind every legal word that you may use in your refund policy. Keep the legal terms that are vital and remove any unnecessary ones.
So you’ve made the best policy, and your customer goes through it reasonably quickly, but what’s next? You cannot leave them hanging right at the very end.
Towards the end, you should direct your customer on the next step they should take if they wish to return their product. This will lead to customers needing a return/refund contacting your customer support and adding to unnecessary work pressure.
Here’s a Shopify refund policy template you can use in your store. You can customise the ‘[]’ brackets and add the required information.
At [Brand’s name], we value our customers more than anything. If you’re unhappy with any product, you can return it to us! For refunds, all items bought at [Store’s website] returned within [Time] days from the day of purchase are eligible for a full refund. All items that are returned must be unused and should contain all of the original packaging and tags [Additional refund requirements].
Some products are not eligible for returns, such as [Any product that is not eligible for return]. To return a product you are dissatisfied with, you can visit our [Returns portal, form, etc.] here.
We strive to give you the best Shopify experience! For any further assistance, feel free to contact us at [Customer support email/phone number], and we’ll be glad to help you out!
If you’re looking to upgrade the way your Shopify store processes returns, then look no further! With the ClickPost Return Plus Shopify app , you can track all of your returns from a single dashboard. You can also create your self-serve return portal for all customers and receive 24/7 support!
You can check out the ClickPost Return Plus App here.
To wrap up, making a short, crisp and simple refund policy is the best way to show your customers how you process returns and refunds. You can look at the various elements we’ve mentioned and understand how one can make their refund policy stand out from others!
Ans: Yes. Without a return policy, your customers will not be able to know the terms and conditions your store follows for returns.
Ans: Absolutely! You can also use our template as a reference point to get started. While writing, remember to keep all the essentials of a good Shopify refund policy in mind.